The Pain of Rain

Greetings everyone. Let's dive into the week, eh? Okay. The first three days were utter crap with a pile of rain and a tornado touched down briefly in Wales where I grew up. hearing about the tornado brought back crazy memories of the late 80's with the tornado ripping down our street. My Mom carrying my sister and I in each arm while pregnant with my little brother. What a crazy time that was. Luckily, the tornado didn't head our way and there were no fatalities. Phew. Mia had a fever on one of the days early this week at school. but luckily after a day of rest, was good to go again. Thursday, I joined Mia and her buddies for lunch. I swear, they get way more hyped when I show up than Mia :P They all asked "So, are you staying for recess?" Of course I am. They always love it, no matter what they plan on doing.

Recess turned into a full on game of street soccer with any and every girl that wanted to play with us. A handful of Mia's teammates including Ryan and Cecilia played so it was fun. Mia picked up a couple goals and Ryan had a great time attempting goalie again. I said my goodbyes and had to split. Unfortunately, we had to cancel practice due to the back fields being totally under water. I was having inner struggles that maybe we should have practiced. The temps had warmed up, but the fields were still terrible. I eventually made peace with it and that was that. Friday, it finally didn't rain and I thought that just maybe the game fields would possibly dry out. Sadly Friday night, I got the text from one of my assistant coach they cancelled the Minors, Juniors and Majors matches. Total bummer. Picture Day was still on so we still had to be there for photos at 7:45AM. Talk about a total bummer and tease for the kids. "Hey, get in your full uniform for photos, but no game". On top of that, they didn't allow cleats in the building. Ugh. Mia wasn't a fan of it at all. After photos she kicked the ball around with Alice and Ally while Ally's Mom talked to me about how the season has been going. She explained how proud she is of her daughter and overall how the team has bonded and played throughout the year. As a coach, I never really know how I'm doing but when I hear little random things like that from parents I have barely met, it's really humbling and always nice to hear. I also ran into old players Jana, Charley and Ainslee. Ainslee's Mom told me she'd really like to get an early request to have me coach her when she gets into 3rd grade next year. Talk about sweet eh? She was a sick goalie last year and I'd love to work with her like I have with Olivia. Olivia has been very patient playing mainly goalie, and with Ava out with an injury, I don't know if I can convince anyone else to play in net. I hope she can play in our final game on the 26th against the 2nd place team. If we win this upcoming match and the 2nd place team loses, we take the league title.

The rest of the day, we hung out with my in-laws for a belated birthday celebration with Tommy. Friday night, Mia made an impressive 8-layered cake for her Uncle. 8 layers of 8 different colors. Unreal. Sunday, I watched the Chelsea vs Southampton match. Blues got the big win 4-1 and are moving up the table right before the International Break. We later went to the zoo in pursuit of the baby red panda. Sadly, the red pandas weren't out either so Mia was pretty disappointed. She enjoyed the polar bear being cute laying in the sun as well as the river otters playing in the water.

This week, Mia's off tomorrow and hoping to find friends to hang out with. Hopefully, we can hold a practice Thursday before our 2nd to last league match. The Torrent have their final match of the year so possibly I will attempt to make it. They had a game over the weekend that I really wanted to go to, but I wasn't feeling that great Saturday for a while, and it was pouring out.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!